Heavyweight boxing great George Foreman, 76, died yesterday. No official cause of death was given, but he was surrounded by his family at a Houston hospital. Not only was he a heavyweight champion in the 1970s, he was also a shrewd businessman and also a pastor.
What is funny is the grill bearing his name and he so often advertised and made millions from he almost didn't do but for his wife, who said it was a great idea for him to promote it after Salton had approached him for an endorsement. They literally had one at their house, but he didn't think anything of it until she mentioned he should promote it. She, more than he, was responsible for the giant success of the indoor grill. I am a fan of it, and I have used them for over 20 years. They are great.
Foreman was also known for having named his male children after him, which was kind of silly, but truthfully it is no worse than what Eloon Musk is doing in naming HIS kids.
The "Rumble in the Jungle" is Foreman's best known bout, although his undefeated streak came to an end thanks to Muhammad Ali:
It was quite a boxing era then, dominated by the heavyweight division. I believe Larry Holmes is the last one of the greats still alive from that era. Holmes was heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1985.
Foreman was born in Texas in 1949. He grew up in Houston. “I grew up in the Fifth Ward of Houston — the Bloody Fifth, we called it. Every weekend someone got killed,” he told Esquire in 2006. His family was poor, and he dropped out of high school at 15 and was involved in petty crime. But at 16 he signed up for the Job Corps, where he got his GED and learned carpentry and bricklaying. During that time he also began training as a boxer.
“I went into boxing at the age of 17 to lose weight and become a great street fighter,” he told Ringside Report in 2000. “Next thing I know, I was fighting as a Golden Glover. It basically all happened as an accident.”
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